Bylaws

Article I - Name

American Civil Liberties Union; University of Houston Law Center Club (ACLU; UHLC Club)

Article II – Purpose

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is our nation’s guardian of liberty, working daily in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution. The ACLU is a non partisan entity which does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, handicap or disability, veteran status or sexual orientation.
The American Civil Liberties Union; University of Houston Law Center Club works to ensure that students are educated about their rights and that those rights are protected. ACLU; UHLC Club also seeks to educate and inform the Law Center and its surrounding community with respect to outside civil liberties/civil rights issues. ACLU; UHLC Club fulfills its mission through educational events and various campaigns targeting specific issues.

Article III – Membership

The ACLU; UHLC Club does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, handicap or disability, veteran status, sexual orientation or political party.

Founding members will be the ten individuals whose names were submitted upon founding of the Club. Their membership will not be subject to the following provisions, with the exception of membership to the UH Law Center.

All members will have to fill in a form reporting their name, address, e-mail address, date of birth and phone number. This information shall not be used for commercial purposes.

A member of the ACLU; UHLC Club will fulfill any two of the following requirements.

1. Any student, faculty or staff person of the University of Houston Law Center who has expressed an interest in the activities of the club and has paid club dues ($10.00) on time.
2. Any student, faculty or staff person of the University of Houston Law Center who has attended three meetings or events.
3. Any student, faculty or staff person of the University of Houston Law Center who has substantially aided in the organization of an ACLU; UHLC Club event.
4. Any student, faculty or staff person of the University of Houston Law Center who has actively participated in a ACLU; UHLC Club campaign.

Article IV – Governance

Section I – Officers
1) The officers of the ACLU; UHLC Club shall be no less than, but not limited to, the following positions and duties:
a) The President shall chair the ACLU Club meetings, oversee the general operations of the club and set the agenda for short, medium and long term projects. She will provide adequate leadership to the Club and serve as liaison to other ACLU entities within and outside the State of Texas. The President is entitled to temporarily delegate some of her duties in the interest of expediency and/or effectiveness.
b) The Executive Vice President will oversee the adequate implementation of the President’s agenda, will provide support and aid to the President and will be ready to take over the position of President should the latter be unavailable or temporarily incapacitated.
c) The Vice President of Communications will be in charge of records keeping. This will include, but will not be limited to: writing minutes, distributing meeting summaries after the event, distributing the agenda to all members prior to each meeting and writing a bi-weekly newsletter informing the membership of past, current and future events.
d) The Vice President of Recruitment will be in charge of managing, updating and up keeping the membership database, recruiting new members, ensuring that all event participants are registered with the Club and are offered membership, and maintaining the active membership of the organization above fifteen.
e) The Vice President of Finance will be in charge of the Club account, recording expenses and income, collecting membership dues and taking care of any IRS related concerns, including but not limited to filing taxes on a yearly basis.
f) The Vice President of Fundraising will work closely with the Vice President of Finance. The duties incumbent on the Vice President of Fundraising will be to propose and manage fundraising events throughout the year. The fundraising goal will be set each semester by the Executive Committee.
g) The Vice President of Events will work closely with the Vice Presidents of Communication, Membership and Fundraising. Her duties will consist in finding venues, catering, sound and video services (amongst others) for Club events. The VP of Events will also oversee the logistical aspect of Club meetings as well as social events, including sending invitations and compiling RSVPs. She will aid the President in locating and inviting speakers to the various Club events.
h) The Vice President of Internet Communications will be responsible for the proper functioning and regular updating of the Club website. Furthermore, the VP of Internet Communications will provide passwords, manage e-mail listings, create the Club website and manage online donation operations.
i) The Vice President of Education will provide members with information material on the issue projects determined by the President. He will also provide talking points on these issues and compile the necessary data to carry out the tactical and educational campaigns.
j) The Vice President of Public Relations will create, post and manage flyers and announcements pertaining to Club events and/or activities. This will entail designing literature, assisting the President in the formulation of slogans as well as mass producing such literature and making it publicly accessible.
2) Officer Elections will take place once a year, on the last Monday before Spring finals.
Nominating Method: Nominations will be made by submitting a nominating ballot no later than the last Monday of the month of August. This may be done electronically, by regular mail or in person.
Any officer is eligible to accept nominations. However, all of these must be turned over to the President prior to the meeting.
Self nominations are permitted.
Only members can be nominated and nominate.
Voting Procedure: A quorum shall consist of half of the active membership. In order to become an elected officer, a plurality will be required. The available voting options will include an abstention vote.
The Faculty Advisor will count the votes.
3) Terms of Office: Terms of office shall be from June 1 to May 31.
The first term of the Club will make exception to this rule, and last from August 22, 2005 to May 31, 2006.
4) Organizational schedule:

May: Elect new officers who participate in a leadership roundtable with the previous executive committee.

June: New officers shadow old officers and prepare next year's budget.

July: New officers assume office and present budget to membership, appoint members to committees for next year, plan for new membership recruitment in the fall, set goals with other officers, etc.
5) Vacancies in Officer Positions:
Should a vacancy arise, a special election shall be called no later than two months after the vacancy takes place. In the interim, any person (not already an officer) may nominate themselves to fill the vacancy, and will do so after confirmation by a majority of the remaining board.
Were the self nominee fail to obtain a majority of board votes, the position would remain vacant until the elections. The President and Executive Vice President would jointly fulfill the duties and responsibilities of the vacant officer position.
Section 2 - Removal of Members and Officers
A. Removal of Members: A member may not be removed arbitrarily. A member may be removed for the following reasons: failure to attend at least 50% of scheduled membership meetings, failure to abide by the policies of this club, violation of Student Handbook rules and any action the goal of which is the dismantling or harming of the ACLU at the national, state or local level.
B. Reasons for Removing Officers: Officers are expected to fulfill all responsibilities of their offices and those of standard membership. In addition, they may not miss more than three consecutive meetings in any one semester and must be present at a minimum of 50% of Board and Membership meetings.
C. Procedure for Removing Members: Minimum due process must be followed. The accused person must be provided written charges and an opportunity to defend him/herself before the President and Executive Vice President are authorized to take action in the organization.
A minimum of 50% of members will be in attendance to vote on the removal of a member or officer.
There is no minimum participation percentage for the vote to be valid.
The accused member/officer must be notified in writing of their status after the decision is made whether or not to remove the member or officer from the club or organization.

D. Disciplining a Member: Should a member’s violations warrant less than an expulsion, the following sanctions may be voted on at the time of the meeting described in Article IV, Section 2C.
A. Temporary Suspension
B. Ban from certain activities
C. Probation requiring attendance of all meetings for a certain period of time (not to extend beyond the end of the ongoing semester).
D. Stripping of officer title

Section 3- Governing Bodies

The Board of the ACLU; UHLC Club shall consist of the President, the Executive Vice President and all of the Vice Presidents.

The Board will meet monthly to discuss the agenda as set by the President and Executive Vice President. Any item to be added to the Agenda can be submitted by any member no later than five days prior to the scheduled Board meeting.

Article V - Meetings

a) Meetings will be scheduled no less than once a month.

b) Meeting times will be set at by a majority vote at the first meeting of each semester.

c) Suggestions will be accepted up until voting time from any member. The VP of Events will be in charge of informing the membership of the suggested times.

d) Should a special meeting be called by the President and the Executive Vice President, the membership shall be informed by means of flyers and/or e-mail communications.

e) All members are invited to attend any and all events organized by the ACLU; UHLC Club. Non attendance and RSVPs shall be handled by the VP of Events, the President and the Executive Vice President. If a member of a Committee cannot attend, then the person to contact is the Chair of that Committee.

f) Any meeting will need the presence of six officers to be official.

g) A quorum will consist of one half of the active membership (counting the officials).
h) An action will carry if it obtains a majority of the votes of the members present.

Article VI - Committees

Each Vice President will be at liberty to assemble a Committee, named after their position (i.e. Public Relations Committee, Education Committee etc.) to aid them in the fulfillment of their tasks. The Committees will consist of no less than three and no more than ten members of the Club.
a. The committees will meet weekly at a time other than the membership wide meeting.
b. The committees, in order to be considered as such, will have to be in existence for no less than two months.
c. The Chair of the Committee will be the VP after whom the committee is named. The Chair of the Committee will be free to appoint any member of the organization who has expressed interest to serve on the committee.
d. The nominations will have to be reviewed by Board of the UHLC-ACLU and should a problem arise within a committee, action will be taken by the Board as a whole pursuant to Article IV, Section 2A and 2C of these bylaws.

Adhoc Committees: The President may at her discretion appoint committees to specific issues. The committee will report on its work and progress to the organization as a whole.
e. Judicial Committee: The Chair of the Judicial Committee will be the Parliamentarian, or if none has been chosen, a non-officer Member appointed by the President. The Chair of the Judicial Committee will oversee elections, member removal proceedings, disciplinary proceedings and amendment processes should there be any. The Judicial Committee will be composed of any five members willing to serve and selected by the Chair of the Judicial Committee.
The latter will have entire discretion as to the process, so long as the Committee is in place within a month after the beginning of each semester.
Beyond this deadline, the President and Executive Vice President will choose members to serve on the Judicial Committee.
There is no term limit for the Chair of the Judiciary Committee.
The President shall not be able to vote during removal proceedings against the Chair of the Judiciary Committee.

Article VII - Finances

Fundraising in the name of the ACLU Club shall be done in a manner consistent with the ACLU’s philosophy, policies and rules.
All fees collected will be handled and accounted for subject
to all relevant University of Houston Law Center and University of Houston
accounting procedures.
If and when dues are collected from members, these will be collected by the VP of Membership who will turn them over to the VP of Finance, or they can be given to the latter directly. If a person chooses to pays dues these will be collected on a rolling basis throughout the year, but only once a year from each member.
At the second Board meeting of each academic year the President will propose a budget which will be debated and amended by members of the Board. The revised budget will be submitted to the membership for review at the next Membership meeting. The approval of the membership is not necessary for the passage of the Budget, but comments and suggestions will be carefully considered by members of the Board.
No changes will be made to the budget after the third Board meeting of the academic year.
Fundraising goals will be set and will in part be used to assess the VP of Fundraising’s performance. All Board members will provide the assistance corresponding to their position for the fulfillment of that goal.

Article VIII – Advisor

The Faculty Advisor will have demonstrated an interest in the issues, campaigns and/or causes the ACLU champions. He will be researched, contacted and chosen by the President of the ACLU; UHLC Club. The Faculty Advisor position will be reconsidered on a yearly basis.

Article IX – Amendment

Amendments may be offered for consideration by any member, at any time over the course of the semesters.
Amendments will be submitted in writing to the President or Executive Vice President of the organization.
The Membership and the Board shall be informed of the meeting via e-mail within a week or at the next meeting (Membership wide or Board, respectively), whichever comes first.
The Membership will be informed of the Amendment prior to the subsequent Membership meeting. The Amendment will be placed on the Agenda at this time. This meeting and the next shall be known as the Amendment Consideration meetings.
Debate will take place at the second Amendment Consideration meeting.
The Amendment will be voted on after Debate at the second Amendment Consideration meeting.
A quorum will consist of 75% of the Membership.
For the Amendment to be adopted, 2/3 of the Board and 2/3 of the Membership will be needed. For these purposes only, the Board votes shall be counted separately from the Membership votes.

Article X - Parliamentary Authority

Parliamentary procedure shall follow Robert's Rule of Order, unless the members present accept a motion to use informal procedures.
Robert’s Rule of Order must be used in case of member removal, member disciplinary hearings, amendments and elections.